INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES

Stockholm Resilience Centre offers interdisciplinary courses on first (Undergraduate), second (Master's) and third (PhD) levels of University education. Want to know more about our courses? Click here!

POLICY and Practice

Our engagement in science-policy-practice activities has increased steadily over the years and range from high-level UN dialogues to local resilience assessments. Want to know more about our policy work? Click here!

After five years of funding from Ebba and Sven Schwartz Foundation, three centre researchers funded look back on how the funding helped them with research, education, policy recomendations and communication projects. Photo: M. Haeggman/Stockholm Resilience Centre

Thank's for your support!

Report summarises achievements made possible by the support from the Ebba and Sven Schwartz Foundation

Text

Financial support from the Ebba and Sven Schwartz Foundation has since 2011 helped Ann-Sophie Crépin, Line Gordon and Lisen Schultz to build their careers.

"To remain a leading hub in sustainability science, we must work to ensure that more young scholars not only excel academically, but also receive the early support needed to succeed in building their careers. In light of this, we are extremely grateful for the career grants from the Schwartz Foundation," says centre science director Carl Folke.

From the Arctic to the tropicsThe overall focus of the Schwartz funded research is to find ways to allow people to account for biosphere support and ecosystem services in decision making. Everything from climate resilience of Arctic ecosystems to the value of tropical mangrove forests for storm protection have been investigated by the three Schwartz-funded researchers, not to mention the management and governance of cultural landscapes in Kristianstad, Sweden, as well as water and poverty in the Sahel.

"The Schwartz project allowed me to take a huge step toward a more comprehensive theory of the role of regime shifts in ecosystems and how they affect people who use the goods and services that the ecosystems provide," says Anne-Sophie Crépin.

"It has been of fundamental importance as it has given me great freedom to evolve as a researcher and be more independent and innovative, doing research that perhaps has been a bit more risky," says Line Gordon.

"Thanks to this long-term funding I have been given a unique chance to develop my own research niche, building on the questions that my PhD research generated as well as generating new ones," says Lisen Schultz.

Science, education and policyThe grant from the Schwartz Foundation has, however, not only benefitted the researchers funded directly. Fostering the next generation of sustainability scientists has been a core activity of the three researchers, including supervision of PhD and Master’s students, as well as lecturing, teaching and developing courses in a number of different contexts. The funding has also resulted in policy relevant recommendations and communication efforts to a wide range of target groups outside academia.

"It is a great pleasure to learn that the funding has made possible important steps in these three women’s individual careers and lead to major outputs in terms of outstanding scientific publications, education and policy relevant recommendations," says Claes Fellander, Chairman of the board of the Ebba and Sven Schwartz Foundation.

The first five years of the Schwartz-funded research have now been summarised in a report, which can be downloaded here (pdf, 4 MB) (pdf, 4 MB). The report was launched during a seminar at the centre on 22 February, an event that also included a ceremony where the Ebba and Sven Schwartz Foundation awarded centre science director, Carl Folke, a grant of SEK 100 000 "for his pioneering work in ecological economics and social-ecological resilience."

"Like no other researcher, he has conveyed the insight that humanity is an integral part of the biosphere, completely dependent on it, and ultimately responsible for shaping our own future in cooperation with the planet's living systems," writes the Foundation in their motivation.

Staff details

Anne-Sophie Crépin is the deputy director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, a partner of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research focuses on environmental economics, more specifically resources and services that stem from ecosystems with complex dynamics.

Line Gordon is a deputy science director and assistant professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research centers around interactions among freshwater resources, ecosystem services and food production, with a focus on resilience thinking.

Lisen Schultz is a Schwartz research fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research focuses on the role of bridging actors, who catalyze collaboration and learning across levels and sectors in adaptive co-management.